Nigel Donnelly

LAST TIME OUT, our Project Elddis was relieved of an old pull-out metal step and the floor was cleaned up ready for a new covering. I'd already decided on vinyl as fitted carpet is susceptible to dirt, and if we want to loose lay a carpet over the top, we can.

LAST TIME OUT, our Project Elddis was relieved of an old pull-out metal step and the floor was cleaned up ready for a new covering. I'd already decided on vinyl as fitted carpet is susceptible to dirt, and if we want to loose lay a carpet over the top, we can.

Before any vinyl hit the floor, the mounting holes from that step, needed filling. I tried a product I found by chance in my local hardware store; One Strike Filler. It is light, like a marshmallow mix but because it is light, it is ideal for filling large holes. With no weight of material, it doesn't sag and it dries in 15 minutes. It cost me £2.49 a tub, and unless it subsequently falls out, I thought it was good.

Getting it down

With the floor filled, it was time to ship in the vinyl. We got it from our local carpet megastore, which predictably, had a sale on (don't they always?). A 1.5m x 3m bit cost us £36 which seemed reasonable enough. We chose a thin strip wood pattern which was inoffensive but we reasoned that a fine pattern suited the confined space more than a large pattern, and a 12ft Elddis is a very confined space...

Thin-strip effect flooring is a bit fussy but should work well in a caravan

This was especially obvious when the roll of vinyl was put inside. After a bit of measuring and marking, I was able to cut some excess from the roll before manhandling it into the van. But is was pretty tough. However the vinyl was put down, tight space meant it was hard to line up properly. Cutting, trimming and measuring made it easier, but care had to be taken to avoid the vinyl tearing at the stress points. In fact, this did happen at the narrowest point between the bed boxes, but once everything flattened out, it's not noticeable.

Push a scraper into the corner and then run a knife along to get a crisp edge

In order to get a good edge against the cabinet work, a flat scraper was pressed hard into the edge of the floor and furniture. Then a sharp Stanley knife was run along a couple of millimetres above the floor against the scraper. Once the cut was made, the scraper was used to push the edge of the vinyl right into the corner and for the most part this worked well.

It was a slow job but rushing results in a poor finish. This happened around the door and in a small area in front of the nearside dinette. This will be tidied up in the next couple of days as the job is finished. Despite these detail issues, the overall effect is very smart.

Flooring is new. Trainers are not...

Now it has all been cut to fit, it will be lifted again in order to finally glue the flooring down, before a bead of coloured silicone is applied all around the edge to finish the job off.